Assembly '97 News Home page Documents next story		More than one way to train a minister Ministers will still be compelled to engage in continuing education despite the removal of punitive sanctions proposed by an Assembly task group. The task group to review ministerial education originally called for ministers and youth workers to be denied further settlements if they failed to undertake satisfactory education. This did not achieve consensus. Instead, Assembly approved the requirement for continuing education to be enforced under the interim code of ethics. Task group convenor, Rev Dr Chris Budden, says this approach allowed the group to achieve its two goals. "One was to require ministers to enter into an agreement with their presbyteries or other appointing bodies to make sure it gets done. "But, secondly, if you require someone to do that then you’ve got to struggle with what happens if they don’t. "Our initial response was ‘if you don’t do it, no further settlements’. There didn’t seem to us to be any other option. "What we’ve moved to though is to say ‘look, you’ve got to do it. It’s a requirement of the interim code of ethics’. That code has a process that allows minsters to be called to account through committees of council for breach of the code. "This means that minsters aren’t under the threat of removal, but at least they’ll be called to account."